The world of Harry Potter took a new, and not completely successful turn with the release of the first Fantastic Beasts film. One of the biggest shifts is obviously the fact that J.K. Rowling wrote the script directly, and that opens up certain concerns for the sequel/s. While there is a lot to love about the first film, especially for the right demographic, it lacks a fair amount of the magic found in the books, and didn’t do that well with critics, managing only a 66 on metacritic.

The new trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald doesn’t exactly go far in convincing you that we’re going to try to move away from trying to distract from a lackluster story with a plethora of shiny objects. Of course, the movie doesn’t want to give too much away, and there is plenty of time for it to give you more to go on, but so far we just get the equivalent of a montage of every time someone casts a spell. Sure, someone is unhappy that Newt is apparently going to Paris, and Newt says he’s going somewhere, but you’d like to have something to get excited about.

It might seem like anything in the Potterverse is immune to concerns about convincing people to get to theaters and/or whether critics are impressed, but with the first film only managing to land as the 12th highest grossing film of the year, there may be some room to worry that Potter fandom alone might not carry things forever. Sure, the movie made a ton of money overall, but proving we aren’t on a downward trend is going to be a big deal.

At any rate, the trailer does at least prove that there is a fun, moody romp with cool magic and fun creatures ahead.

Take a look below and let us know what you think of this one. More awesomeness for the Potter franchise, or mediocre money grab?

Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

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